1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for mounting a flexible printed circuit board which electrically connects the shutter unit on a lens side of the board particularly on a zoom lens side, and a control circuit on a camera body side of the board.
2. Description of Related Art
In a recent compact camera, a lens is usually provided with a shutter unit which receives operation signals issued from a camera body, in accordance with a subject distance value and a luminance value of a subject to be photographed. The operation signals are usually transmitted by a flexible printed circuit board (FPC board), to a zoom lens in which a large movement of the shutter unit takes place in the optical axis direction, together with a group of movable lenses of the zoom lens.
The FPC board must be capable of deforming so as to absorb the displacement of the movable lens group. The amount of deformation of the flexible printed circuit board becomes large as the displacement of the movable lens group increases. To this end, usually, the FPC board is bent twice between the shutter unit and the camera body. However, it is very difficult to provide sufficient space at the bent portions and to ensure stability (immovability) of the bent portions. Namely, there is a possibility of an accidental separation of the bent portions of the FPC board from a receiving groove formed in an annular member. The separation may cause the FPC board to interfere with the annular member or another annular member(s) which moves in the optical axis direction. Thus, the FPC board may be damaged and movement of the movable lens will not occur.
In addition to the foregoing, since no precise restriction on the axial movement of the conventional FPC board in the optical axis direction can be effected, the axial movement of the shutter unit causes the FPC board to move in the same direction, thus resulting in an interference of the FPC board with the annular member(s).